Diversify or die: Lynham’s warning for Queensland’s economy

Cameron Atfield reports in the Brisbane Times (17.9.16) on comments regarding the need to diversify the state’s economy and its energy sources, made by State Development Minister, Dr Anthony Lynham, at the ‘Jobs of the Future’ symposium organised jointly by the TJ Ryan Foundation and the Queensland Council of Unions.

‘A renewable energy project on the site of an old north Queensland gold mine could help lead the state into a post-coal energy future, State Development Minister Anthony Lynham said on Saturday as he warned a failure to diversify the state’s economy could be disastrous.

‘Speaking at a meeting of the TJ Ryan Foundation think tank at the Queensland University of Technology, Dr Lynham said the transition to renewable energy was “beyond doubt”.

‘And those behind the Genex project, about 270 kilometres north-west of Townsville, hoped they would strike gold at the Kidston mine once again, in the form of clean energy for Queensland’s north.

‘… Dr Lynham said Queensland needed to do more to encourage other similarly innovative economic drivers.

‘”We have a downturn in mining, a terrible downturn in our resources sector. Thank God we don’t have a cycled drop in agriculture at the same time, because Queensland is still agriculture and mining,” he said.

‘”If we had those two cycles in the bottom trough, we’d be in serious trouble”.’

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